The exchange event in Gold Leaf City was nothing like a salon banquet.

It was more like a trade exposition.

Distinguished guests and students from across Human Valley, all attending by invitation, would bring their region’s specialties or proudest creations to display at the exchange. It was equally an excellent opportunity to trade what one had for what one needed, and to find strong partners for mutually beneficial collaboration.

Silver Maple City had its own specialties, the most renowned being a silver maple leaf that served as a catalyst for certain medicines — the name “Silver Maple City” derived from exactly this plant. Beyond that, there were several others, including the purple crystal stone from the mine in Yue Yang’s Star Diamond Castle domain, a mineral found nowhere else. Performing well at the exchange would benefit both one’s life assessment standing and future prospects, making it the ideal early test and proving ground. Many students liked to use the exchange as a stage for self-display, treating it as a means of accumulating momentum for their own development.

“Baron Titan — won’t you be displaying your rune work?” Advisor Fan found his way to Yue Yang with a smile that reached only his lips.

“The Baron only just entered the academy — his work must still be in progress.” The black-bearded elder stepped in to smooth things over.

“Is that right? So there are no finished works at all.” Advisor Fan said this deliberately loud, making sure everyone in the exchange hall could hear, hoping to put Yue Yang — as the master of Star Diamond Castle — in a position too awkward to escape.

“Is coming here contingent on having finished works?” Yue Yang smiled faintly. “I have a feeling a generous buyer willing to spend freely on student projects might be even more welcome.”

“Hmph.” Advisor Fan’s expression changed immediately.

He was no fool. He understood perfectly what was being said.

Yue Yang was plainly intending to use money as his weapon. Hearing it filled him with profound displeasure, but there was nothing he could do. How could anyone stop a person from spending money freely at an exchange event? In Human Valley, with both wealth and standing, who had grounds to prevent it? If Yue Yang were merely an ordinary mercenary, or a newly rich merchant, Advisor Fan could have thrown his weight around and had him removed from the gathering. But Yue Yang was a baron with rank and title, holding Star Diamond Castle and four subordinate territories. Advisor Fan might have more years behind him in his position, but in actual standing and authority, he genuinely came up short by comparison.

Previously, when the City Lord was scheming to appropriate Star Diamond Castle’s interests, Advisor Fan had rallied behind him and stood to gain from whatever scraps fell his way. Now the City Lord and his tenth son Zhonghua had inexplicably abandoned any such designs and were even showing signs of quietly supporting the castle — which left him, as a mere council member, with nothing but frustration. He could vent a little through words, but private scheming against Yue Yang was something he now genuinely didn’t dare do.

“Little Titan — here’s a thousand Heaven Crystals. Buy whatever you like and don’t hold back.” The principal was heading out to meet some old friends, and before leaving, he pressed a card into Yue Yang’s hands, telling his prize student to shop freely at the exchange. He was even a little worried that his prize student might be too well-behaved and reluctant to spend, and added specific encouragement.

“Thank you, Principal.” The level of obedient adorableness Yue Yang was performing would have earned a gold star at any primary school.

“Infuriating!” Advisor Fan, watching this from nearby, was so envious he nearly knocked his own head against the wall.

He had never seen a principal like this.

No matter how devoted a teacher was to a student, who would hand over a thousand Heaven Crystals for the student to splash around at will? A thousand Heaven Crystals — as a red council member, he was one of the more significant figures under the City Lord. His annual income, including his official salary and various supplemental revenue, didn’t add up to that. And this amount — more than a top official made in a year — was being handed over like pocket change to spend on whatever took the boy’s fancy.

How entirely unfair.

Advisor Fan felt that if he were the heavens themselves, dispensing justice, he’d send a bolt of lightning down to flatten this young man.

“That’s quite a sum — what should I even buy with it? Sometimes having too much money is its own kind of problem.” Yue Yang said this while deliberately holding the card up and waving it back and forth in front of Advisor Fan. Advisor Fan nearly bled from all seven orifices. You insufferable brat — do you not know when you’ve won? Weren’t you going to stop there? Did you have to push until someone else was dead before you’d be satisfied? If violence weren’t forbidden in Human Valley, Advisor Fan would have snatched it by force.

“The principal is remarkably generous indeed!” The black-bearded elder was also impressed — and in the same breath, understanding clicked into place for him. This explained why the City Lord and the rising star Zhonghua had reversed their position and were supporting Baron Titan rather than continuing to scheme against Star Diamond Castle. The castle’s previous master had apparently left behind not just the castle itself, but an enormous, carefully built network of connections — people looking out for the current master at every turn, including the most principled and exacting principal at the Heavenly Pride Wanderer’s Academy.

Of course the City Lord wasn’t going to make an enemy of someone like this.

Once the black-bearded elder worked this out, a quiet thought took shape in his mind. Since this Star Diamond Castle heir had so many people behind him, why not add one more voice to that chorus?

Befriending a lord with real authority, genuine standing, and strong prospects was far more valuable than cultivating relationships with colleagues at the same level. Almost instantly, the black-bearded elder drew a clear mental line between himself and Advisor Fan. Red council member? That wasn’t a permanent position — it was a five-year elected post. How could it compare to a lord with lifelong domain and power? Someone like Star Diamond Castle’s master had unlimited potential ahead. Saying nothing of city lord — in time, prince or national ruler were both conceivable. Investing at the earliest stage now would be worth a thousand times more than any investment made later.

“Baron Titan — if you’re unfamiliar with the exchange, I have a rather sharp-witted attendant I could spare. Perhaps she might accompany you and show you around?” The black-bearded elder had decided to deploy the beauty-gift gambit — presenting a lovely maidservant was one of the most practiced and most effective alliance-building tools among nobles.

“Thank you for the kind thought, but another time — for now I need to keep my attention focused on my studies.” Yue Yang declined graciously.

“Of course, of course — once Baron Titan’s Assessment Ceremony is concluded, I’ll certainly be there to offer my congratulations. By then, your title may well have risen to Viscount — perhaps even Count!” The black-bearded elder laughed warmly, completely unbothered by the refusal. He’d read the situation clearly enough — a young lord with this kind of potential was obviously the academy’s primary investment, or the principal would never have been extravagant enough to hand over a thousand crystals for free spending.

“Thank you again for your goodwill — I have something I need to attend to. We’ll talk more later.” Yue Yang excused himself with a smile.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” Advisor Fan, feeling considerably worse than a man who’d been constipated for ten days, finally couldn’t contain himself and demanded an explanation from the black-bearded elder. “A little brat who’s barely stopped smelling of milk, and you’re falling over yourself to flatter him? We’ve been in different factions but always on reasonably friendly terms, and today you won’t stand with me — instead you’re stabbing me in the back and going over to that young man’s side?”

“Advisor Fan, in life there are many choices available to a person. There’s no need to commit oneself exclusively to a single road.” The black-bearded elder, himself a seasoned political hand, kept his expression pleasant and unruffled even under the verbal attack.

“Fine. We’ll see about this.” Advisor Fan was nearly incandescent with fury. A traitor, and he had the nerve to sound reasonable about it?

“No need to see me out.” The black-bearded elder smiled outwardly while internally writing Advisor Fan off entirely. The man wasn’t an idiot — why paint himself as an enemy of a genuine lord with real power out of wounded pride? Anyone could see that this young man’s future had been paved before him a decade in advance. Figures like the City Lord and Zhonghua were going out of their way to cultivate him — and you, a red council member, thought you counted for much in that company? If it were a genuine fool who couldn’t read the situation, that would be one thing. But a person intelligent enough to see clearly, letting jealousy blind him, knowing he was wrong and refusing to turn back — that was simply beyond comprehension.

If you wanted to hurl yourself against a wall, that was your business.

But you couldn’t drag your allies down with you. They were political associates, not his father — and even a father would be justified in changing sides under these circumstances.

The black-bearded elder shook his head, added Advisor Fan to his mental list of people to distance himself from, and decided to cut off the political association as cleanly as possible. This kind of ally was only going to cause trouble.

Yue Yang walked out of the Silver Maple exhibition hall alone.

The central area was a wide courtyard, surrounded on all sides by exhibition halls of varying sizes — several dozen in total. The larger halls, like Silver Maple City’s, had ample space, with dozens approaching a hundred specialties and constructs being arranged and assembled inside, plus inner-hall lounges and meeting rooms furnished with every comfort. The smaller halls ran about a third of the large ones in size, with the smallest at roughly a fifth — these were shared spaces for large merchant associations and mercenary guilds, whose displayed wares were somewhat different from the upper-tier offerings.

Beyond all of this, a central pavilion occupied the heart of the courtyard.

The exchange hadn’t opened yet, however, and everything inside was still being prepared — the doors weren’t actually open for business.

Yue Yang strolled through several city exhibition halls and found that most of the specialty items were still being arranged, and constructs were still being assembled in urgent haste, with not a single hall fully prepared and open for visitors. Watching the various city representatives scurrying about frantically, Yue Yang paid more attention to the specialty products themselves than to anything he might buy. It was too early to make purchases — the event hadn’t opened, nobody was properly set up yet, and buying now would mean paying whatever they asked rather than any kind of favorable price.

It would also expose what he was actually looking for.

So even when he spotted genuinely interesting specialty items, Yue Yang simply smiled and walked on — no inquiries about prices, no extended questions about properties or attributes. Of course, with the Heaven’s Eye, he had no need to waste time asking anyway.

The large halls were chaos, but a handful of the smaller ones housed merchant associations that had arrived ahead of schedule and were well-prepared — these people took the exchange seriously, which was simply in their commercial nature.

“How much for the beast eggs?” Yue Yang had wandered into a small exhibition hall jointly rented by several mercenary companies. Everything inside was already fully set up, just waiting for customers — but the hall was completely empty of visitors, not a soul in sight.

Looking around, Yue Yang quickly understood why. The items here were too “anomalous” for Human Valley’s tastes.

In Human Valley, things that could be converted into combat power — constructs, puppet beasts — were in highest demand. Items that directly enhanced personal condition, like springs of life or flower-essence wine, were also eagerly sought. But weapons that couldn’t be used, war beasts that couldn’t be deployed, or anything that couldn’t be converted into something Human Valley actually needed — those had essentially no value.

Human Valley, and the humans within it, were simply that practical.

A combat-type war beast at Sky-rank tier five — anywhere else in the world, even setting aside the Sky Tower, anywhere in the Heavenly Realm, would have people falling over themselves to acquire it. But in Human Valley, it couldn’t even match certain edible Earth-rank beast varieties. Because war beasts couldn’t be used in Human Valley, even the most powerful ones were simply “useless objects” — still consuming resources to maintain, while unable to generate any combat value whatsoever. Of course they couldn’t compete with Earth-rank beasts that could be converted into food or bred in large numbers for resale.

It could be stated with complete certainty that in Human Valley, a Sky-rank tier five black dragon would sell for far less than an Earth-rank tier three lard-skin demon pig — or even an Earth-rank tier one long-haired snow rabbit or spotted-back guinea pig.

Spotted-back guinea pigs reproduced prolifically, provided substantial quantities of meat, and could process a particular type of bean called the Crimson Gold Bean — an extremely hard variety that only certain rodents and rabbits could partially digest. This half-digested Crimson Gold Bean, when used in brewing, produced wine of extraordinary character. A considerable portion of Human Valley’s mercenaries and commoners sustained themselves by raising spotted-back guinea pigs to process beans and selling the resulting Crimson Gold Wine to merchants.

Could a Sky-rank tier five black dragon do any of that?

The black dragon was nothing but a food budget.

Similarly, long-haired snow rabbits grew fur at a remarkable rate — their coats could be harvested season after season for sale. The quality wasn’t comparable to premium white cloud wool, but the rabbits reproduced quickly, survived easily, and were straightforward to keep in pens — far less demanding than the delicate gold-horned white sheep. That comparison too was entirely beyond the black dragon’s reach.

At least the lard-skin demon pig could be slaughtered for meat.

In Human Valley’s unique environment, war beasts — particularly combat-type ones — were simply a tragedy.

The beast eggs Yue Yang was asking about were a heap of combat-type war beast eggs piled in a corner, apparently untouched for some considerable time. The quality of these eggs was mostly gold-grade and above, and they were almost entirely Sky-rank war beasts.

Raising a Sky-rank tier five black dragon to sell its blood would bring in some revenue, but before the blood revenue arrived, the dragon would probably eat the keeper into bankruptcy first.

And black dragon eggs hatching into mature dragons took somewhere between one and several thousand years.

So if there was anything even more tragic than Sky-rank war beasts in Human Valley, it was Sky-rank war beast eggs — absolute zero demand, unless some noble happened to fancy a bowl of Sky-rank beast egg-drop soup.

“These — none of these are food-type or support-type beast eggs. They’re all combat-type.” The mercenary attendant who came hurrying over at the sound of Yue Yang’s voice looked as bitter as a gourd. Even if Yue Yang wanted to buy them, the attendant didn’t quite dare sell — terrified that Yue Yang would walk out and immediately come back to make trouble. With someone dressed and carrying himself like a young noble of excellent breeding, this attendant wouldn’t have dared pull any kind of deception even if his courage had been multiplied by a hundred.

“Aren’t war beasts categorized as elemental, enhancement, beast-type, and special?” Yue Yang smiled.

“Yes, that’s correct. But in practice, we generally set elemental and enhancement types aside — no market for them. Beast-type gets divided into those suitable for food and those that aren’t — the combat variants. Special-type beasts actually tend to be more popular, particularly for those with Grimoires.” The attendant quickly explained, then offered a suggestion: “If you’re interested, the main display is over there. That’s where our featured items are — something there might catch your interest.”

“I’m not exactly short on war beast eggs myself, but watching these sit here going to waste is rather difficult to look past.” Yue Yang reflected that bringing this heap of Sky-rank beast eggs back to the Sky Tower would probably send the leaders of every faction there into a frenzy of delight.

“You actually want to buy them?” The attendant’s eyes went wider than any beast’s, his mouth capable of accommodating a thunder toad.

“Give me a price. If it’s reasonable, I’ll take the lot.”

Yue Yang thought, if at all possible, he’d like to fill every storage ring he had.

“Ah — so you, you’re serious? You actually want to buy? In that case — all of them, all together — five Heaven Crystals. No, wait — three crystals and you can take everything away. How does that sound?” The attendant, terrified that Yue Yang might turn and walk off, lowered the price before Yue Yang even responded, waiting anxiously for an answer, deeply worried this young man of clearly aristocratic breeding would take offense and hit him across the face.

“I’ll put in an order for fifty Heaven Crystals’ worth.” Yue Yang patted the attendant on the shoulder, leaving the man too dazed to believe he was awake. “What I want is this: when I come back tomorrow at this time, I’d like to see a considerably larger collection of combat-type Sky-rank beast eggs piled in front of me. If you can make that happen, I’ll give you an additional five crystals as a bonus.”

“Ah!” The attendant’s mind had completely ceased functioning. He didn’t even register Yue Yang leaving.

His mind was on an infinite loop, replaying that single sentence: If you can make that happen, I’ll give you an additional five crystals as a bonus.

Five Heaven Crystals. Working hard for an entire year last year, his total income hadn’t reached even half of five crystals. And today, from the lips of a young noble, it had come out as something that might casually land in his pocket as a tip.

Was this real?

(End of Chapter)